


Connections

by uqune



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Hinata Shouyou is a Good Friend, Nonbinary Kageyama Tobio, Nonbinary Sugawara Koushi, POV Hinata Shouyou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27317419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uqune/pseuds/uqune
Summary: While Hinata may not be book-smart, he certainly is more socially adept than others. This leads him to notice that over the last few weeks, Kageyama is...changing, somehow.Or rather, Kageyama slowly seems to become more himself, both as a player and as a person.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou & Sugawara Koushi, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio (implied), Kageyama Tobio & Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 112





	1. do i know you?

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my second Haikyuu fic! This one is a litte bit different I think, but I like it nonetheless.
> 
> This fic features nb Kageyama and nb/genderfluid (?) Sugawara (honestly his gender identity is a bit of a mess but in this fic he prefers he/him pronouns while feeling happiest when identifying as nb lol)! It's kind of the main plot of the whole fic, or rather, how Hinata is Obnoxiously Observant and notices the mortifying experience that is "Oh No I'm Not Cisgender What The Hell". Hinata is curious and wants to know what the hell is going on, Sugawara is a good senpai and Kageyama is lost in himself for most of the time.
> 
> While gender is varied and everyone experiences it differently and I am certainly basing it losely on _my_ whole experience with it, it might be inaccurate? I don't know. I think I might've glossed over some parts, but all in all I did an okay job. If there's anything I should know for future reference, please let me know!

Hinata is good with people. He knows how to talk to people, console them, whatever; even with Kageyama, where straight-forwardness and the ability to dodge the setter's (half-hearted) punches works above anything else. Hinata is someone you would call socially adept, or even people-smart, even though he often doesn't register the influence his existence and his words have on others.

One of the things that make Hinata the social mastermind that he is, is noticing things; patterns in behaviour, reactions to things, way of speaking, et cetera— Hinata sees this, and either consciously or unconsciously (he can't even tell) remembers.

And recently, he's been noticing Kageyama an awful lot. Noticing the way he's changed, or _is_ changing.

The first change he observes is when they've just finished up practice in the dressing room, Kageyama actually… _looking_ at his body.

It's not like teenage boys looking at their body isn't anything new; (with slight embarrassment) Hinata admits that he does it too, in the safety of his own bathroom mirror. Unlike Tanaka, who full-on ogles his abs in the mirror, sometimes getting Noya and the third years hyping him up too. It's fun and valid on Tanaka's part, because he _is_ in good shape.

Despite that, Kageyama is not the type to do that. And now he is.

An explanation as to _why_ he's not like that seems in order (according to Hinata)— Kageyama is certainly one to fuss over his own health and figure, as it's very important to stay healthy and stay in shape, but apart from that, Kageyama has no interest in boosting either his ego or ponder about how attractive he is. Kageyama's entire life is centred around volleyball, why think about non-volleyball things that aren't even important in the long run?

Yet Kageyama is looking in the mirror and… _frowning_.

It's the type of frown when Kageyama sets the ball a little too low or too high, when he's not satisfied with his own work, or whenever the milk from the vending machine doesn't taste exactly the same, because, well, it's from a _vending machine_. Of course the milk will be a little bit different sometimes.

What Hinata can tell from his six-second stare in the mirror, is that Kageyama dissatisfied with… his body?

Hinata doesn't judge, neither does he say anything, and Kageyama doesn't seem to notice, so he moves on, tucking the stray piece of information in the back of his head.

It's not the last time Kageyama does this; starting that day Hinata catches the setter stare at his body after each practice, getting more subtle about it each time.

(But Hinata awareness levels have always been high, so it doesn't go unnoticed.)

The second change is not after, but during practice, and far more dramatic: when Hinata almost passes out after their practice match against the Karasuno alumni because of dehydration and the entire club gives him worried looks, Daichi asking Kageyama if he accompany bring Hinata to the school nurse.

Kageyama agrees, but not before muttering "Hinata, dumbass, let's start moving," though it lacks the usual edge that Hinata is known to hear.

All this isn't anything new. Well, maybe the almost-fainting, because usually Hinata takes care of himself that much that he can _keep playing_. Both of them are kind of friends now ( _frenemies_ , Noya sometimes jokes) and at this point the shorter boy has figured out the setter and his uncanny way of expressing feelings.

What is new, however, is that when Tanaka expressed concern over Kageyama single-handedly bringing Hinata to the nurse, "What if Hinata faints on their way?" Tanaka says, Asahi agreeing, and Hinata's heart is warm from having such caring upperclassmen, "What happens then?"

Daichi thinks for a second, then sighs: "Kageyama will take care of it. I'm sure he is capable enough." And Kageyama—

— Kageyama _frowns_ at this statement.

Why that is, Hinata doesn't know. All he knows is that Kageyama is _mulling_ over Daichi's words, and any positive connotations seem to lack around his thought process right now, seeing the subtle rigidness in his facial expression.

Hinata finds this weird.

It gets even weirder when they're in the nurse's office and coach Ukai steps in, first asking if everything is okay and how he's feeling, then scolding Hinata for not properly taking care of his body's needs. Kageyama smirks at the earful Hinata is getting, when Ukai turns around, berating him too.

"I didn't even do anything…" Kageyama starts.

"You should take care of yourself as well! I know Hinata is not the only one who trains late into the evening, don't think you're off the hook, young man!"

Kageyama winces at that.

Kageyama _never_ winces when he gets scolded by Ukai.

Hinata is clearly missing something. When he talks to Suga about this, including the mirror incidents, to which Suga's eyebrows reach his hairline and Hinata has to quickly defend himself, claiming that he notices different things about others too, but these recent changes in Kageyama just… worry him.

"You're worried," Suga deadpans, "about _Kageyama_. Your _rival_."

"Yes I am! Who else is going to toss to me?"

Hinata realises his mistake a second too late.

"U-uh I mean _you_ would but Kageyama is… ah— um—" 

"He's a good setter, I agree," Suga says (Hinata catches an unresolved sadness behind his lopsided grin, worming itself through the cracks, alternating the meaning of his words), "as much as I would like to be on the court, Kageyama is undoubtedly better and a big asset to the team, not to mention the connection between you two," Hinata pay attention as to what _connection_ insinuates, (more like: purposefully ignores it) "so it's natural for you to be worried— you're friends, are you not?"

Hinata thinks about this. "I guess. But you're better than Kageyama in lots of different ways! Kageyama is very good and gives you the exact spikes you need, but you— you make our team feel like there w-we will always _create_ a way to get the ball up in the air, you know? Like the backbone of our team!"

Suga just stares at Hinata for a full minute, cheeks flaming red.

"You sure know your way with words."

"Everything what I said is true!""I'm not doubting that— it's the way you said it. They're good words." 

"Good words?""Good words."

The two of them sit in silence for a bit, the atmosphere light and carefree; Hinata is thinking about his words and Suga is writing something down. Despite that, Hinata is as impatient as one can be, saying:

"Anyway! Do you know what's wrong with Kageyama? I don't understand what's happening, and if he's not on the top of his game…"

"I don't know," Suga sighs, "I'm going through the things you told me, but I can't seem to make the connection.""It's almost like he's lost something, like his vending-machine milk."

Suga's expression is thoughtful at that. "He's lost something? Or maybe he's finding something— Creating… No, that doesn't sound right. Understan—" the setter's eyes go wide, "oh shit, I am so fucking _dumb_. How did _I_ not make the connection."

"What is it?" Hinata is practically vibrating from excitement, wanting to hear Suga's revelation.

"I don't… I don't think I am allowed to tell you that. Breach of privacy."

"What!" Hinata yells, exasperation colouring his tone, as Sugawara scurries away, leaving the smaller boy alone in the silent dressing room, eyes wide open.

* * *

Suga's revelation manifests in a subtle shift in dynamics between the two setters; they're _closer_ , somehow, something akin to a secret connecting them, a new-formed bond that includes Kageyama staring at his own body and frowning whenever somebody says _something_ that the tall setter didn't like, (what is that something? Hinata can't tell) the third year understanding and relating to him. 

And every time, without fail, Suga refuses to tell Hinata what it is, and the former is certainly not asking Kageyama what the hell this is all about.

There are also blatant shifts in their relationships— Hinata notices them; now, when Kageyama looks at his reflection with distaste, Suga encouragingly pats his back, the first year's face washing over with calm and an unspoken _thank you_ , instead of a self-depreciating frown.

Days go by. Kageyama and Sugawara still have an unspoken something between them. Hinata keeps asking about it, but the older setter won't budge. Days go by. A few more. A week, two, and then Sugawara pulls something so glaringly obvious (at least to Hinata) that it's…

It's… Hinata doesn't know how to describe what it is.

It's when Hinata notices Suga using _they_ instead of _he_ when referring to Kageyama, Hinata starts to slowly understand what's going on.

The whole thing is subtle, but also glaringly obvious, because Suga is the only one who refers to Kageyama as they, and everybody else seems to be just using _he_ without noticing the change. Well, everybody except for Tsukishima, because the bastard's smart, but he minds his own business, not commenting on it, and Hinata supposes it's best for him to do the same.

Nevertheless, Hinata knows and sees, and even appreciates the change. Kageyama feels… freer now, clearer, more like _Kageyama_ (does that make sense? Hinata thinks), and it's shows; his tosses have become better, as have his serves. Hinata can say with confidence that he's turning green with envy, but he's not so sure if that's a positive thing.

Hinata appreciates the change, but he still doesn't get it. He understands some of it, but he doesn't get it.


	2. can i learn?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata is nosy and has the internet to help him, until he's sick of the internet and calls Kageyama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair I think that Hinata would be a bit of a... bad friend, if this were real life, but with Kageyama's character it Just Works (???) I have to admit that this is a bit rushed, though. But in the end, I think the second chapter to this fic came out alright.

Hinata is not very good with the internet.

His search history is mostly volleyball-related content, youtube videos on how to learn this and that technique, incredible plays by actual pros (oh how Hinata _wishes_ that were him) and articles about rising stars. 

He has an Instagram with a following of exactly thirty people, which mostly includes his teammates and his classmates. Hinata barely uses it: his profile picture is a funny bird he saw once when biking to school, he has two posts, one of them is a video of him spiking the ball, captioned _when you're being super cool!!!!!!!_ and at _least_ twenty hashtags following it; the other a picture of his sister in a green dress, holding a muffin she decorated herself, because she's too young to have any kind of social media, so she just demanded Hinata post it on his. It's not that he minds, though. 

(Natsu's pic got fifteen likes in total, and she's _so_ happy about it. Hinata doesn't understand why it's important, but happy is happy, so he lets her be.)

Additionally, the username used to be shohinataaa156, but Shimizu took one look at it and said: "this won't do", so now it's syh.inata— Hinata doesn't really think there's a difference, but Shimizu smiles when she's done changing it; there's no need to change.

Apart from Instagram, Hinata has a couple of messaging apps to keep in touch with others, and briefly considered downloading Facebook, but it seems like too much work, thus he doesn't bother. There's the Wikipedia app on Hinata's phone, too, but according to Yachi it isn't social media…

Hinata only uses it to research famous volleyball players anyway.

Kageyama also has an Instagram (username kageyama__._tob1o) which is also rarely used. With eight pictures in total, all of his posts are pictures of him before, during, or after a match— his latest post, a video, is the same one Hinata posted, because it's _Kageyama_ tossing the ball for Hinata to spike. It's captioned _A nice toss_ , and according to Hinata, it's very lame and boring. Kageyama doesn't care.

Hinata is right.

Come to think of it, all of his posts are either caption-less or dryly describing what is going on in the picture.

( _They_ , Hinata reminds himself, it's they.

At least, he hopes so. He hopes that he's getting this right.)

But that's not the point right now— right now Hinata is sitting behind his laptop, staring at the tab which has Kageyama's Instagram open, trying to find a hint, any hint, that would help him with deciphering the setter.

Stares for another second, two, three, and makes a decision.

He opens Google, and types in _they them pronoun meaning_. Down the rabbit hole he goes.

* * *

When emerging from the depths of the internet, Hinata has accumulated more questions than answers about the whole thing.

The first option is to be smart (or stupid, the spiker isn't very sure about that) and ignore the whole… issue? It's not really an issue, right? Rather a part of life he hasn't understood yet— Hinata sure hope it is.

The second option is to call Suga, but he's done that so many times, to the point that he's not actually sure if the third year will actually pick up due to the sheer frustration Hinata has evoked with his endless repetition of two to three questions. Now that he knows a bit more, two to three has evolved into seven to eight, but it would annoy Suga nonetheless, and Hinata can't have that— regardless that Kageyama is their main setter, Suga is still an integral part of the team who sets regularly during practice; Hinata can't risk getting less sets during practice, or worse, games, because he annoyed one of the kindest people who have graced this earth because he didn't understand something that was not meant to be understood.

The third option is to call Kageyama. Hinata is not looking forward to that one, and option number four is to go back onto the internet to do research, something he is not going to do, no matter what.

In the end Hinata has four… _three_ options: stupidity, Suga, or Kageyama. (He leaves out the internet; no need to fuck with that headache anymore.) 

He breathes in, out, in, out, going through the correct questions, sentences, responses (hopefully the reheased apologies he won't have to pull out) again and again. With his phone trembling in his hand, Hinata has already made a decision; either this can go… _mildly_ okay or just plain terrible. Neither of them seem like great outcomes.

He presses the call button. It goes over thrice before he hears a groggy "it's two in the morning, what do you _want_."

 _Hoo boy_ , he can't back out of this, now.

"Hi Kageyama! How are you?" Hinata flinches when checking the clock— 2:13 AM, dear lord. He's never going to live this down.

"Did you call me just to ask that? I'm hanging up." Kageyama sounds pissed.

Hinata almost drops his phone. "Wait! No! I had, ahm, some other questions?"

"What the hell…" he hears the setter from the other side of the line sigh, "what is it, dumbass?"

"Right, so, I _know_ that I'm kind of overstepping my boundaries here and you are totally in the right to be mad at me because, well, I'm butting in, but—""Get to the point."

"What does it mean to be non-binary?"

Hinata hears Kageyama inhale sharply, then silence. What follows are the tensest fifteen seconds of the former's life.

"You. What— _what_? How—" Kageyama chokes out, their strained voice turning into a hiss when they find the words they want to say, " _who told you that_?"

The spiker squeaks. Yeah, he should _not_ have inserted himself into Kageyama's… business, but now he has pushed himself into a corner and the only way out is to face it head-on: "No… nobody told me! I found out myself!"

Hinata hears a grunt signalling disbelief on the other side.

"I don't think you're smart enough for that."

"I sure am! I did research and all that, it's very confusing, and you obviously know more about it—"

"Sure, but how did you know?"

"Know what?"

Kageyama let's out a whine, and Hinata's mind goes "???", because Kageyama doesn't _whine_.

"That I'm… you know…" 

_Ah_.

"Ah," Hinata echoes his thoughts, "I paid attention to you— well, I-I pay attention to everyone in our club, not just you— so when you started to change I asked Suga about it and then he figured it out before me and wouldn't tell me why, but then he started to change the way he talked to you and… well…"

"You noticed," Kageyama breathes, "you always notice.""Um. Yea. I mean I figured out more too: correct me if I'm wrong, but Suga is just like you, isn't he?"

Kageyama laughs, "I don't… I don't think that's something I am allowed to say."

"Oh, makes sense."

SIlence follows Hinata's statement; the only noises are the static coming from his phone speakers and the crows outside his window.

Without warning, Kageyama pipes up: "how are you this fucking smart, Hinata? You barely pass your classes, yet you figured out something I've been _successfully_ keeping from the entire club."

"To be fair, remembering English verb conjugations is far more difficult than figuring out people."

That seems to get a laugh out of Kageyama— Hinata knows they're not the best regarding friendships and human interaction in general, except on the court, when words don't have to be spoken. They sometimes convey their thoughts in a way that others consider rude, but the team offers them endless support; this is most apparent with Tsukishima and Hinata, the two always getting in "fights" with Kageyama, but when the players are on the same page, _oh, that's hell for the other team, then_.

(Though, Tsukishima doesn't hang out with Kageyama during their free time)

"I—" Hinata tries to get the conversation going again, "I'm glad."

"For… for what?"

"That you figured it out. With your gender thing."

"I don't think it's figured out just yet," Kageyama snorts, the tenseness in their tone that was present a few minutes ago now gone, "I've got a long way to go.""Then I'm happy for you for being on your way.""Thank you…?"

"I, uh, I don't… I don't know how to help you with it, but I can offer you my support…? You seem really happy recently, you seem… more like Kageyama, I guess." Hinata blurts out.

A beat. Two.

" _You_ —" he can hear Kageyama choke up on the other side of the line, "Dumbass."

Hinata smiles. How did Kageyama call him smart and a dumbass in the span of three minutes?

(Because Kageyama is Kageyama; that's how.)

"Oh! Also with the, pronoun thingie— do I use _they_ for you?"

There's another beat of silence. A huff of air. Kageyama, trying to construct a normal sentence, Hinata, eagerly waiting for a response.

"This feels a little weird. Like... like this whole situation— who calls another person about their gender identity at two in the morning?" Kageyama snorts ignoring Hinata yelling a _I was curious!_ , continuing softly, "but yeah, I'd… I'd like that."

"Great! I'm glad for you, Kageyama, see you at practice." Hinata nonchalantly says, and hangs up.

Kageyama blinks at their phone screen for a few seconds. They smile.

"What a dumbass."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on tumblr (u9une)!

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](https://u9une.tumblr.com/)


End file.
